Court Says Uber and Lyft Drivers May be Employees
Drivers for Uber and Lyft claimed they are employees, not independent contractors. Two different judges hearing these cases both held that factual questions preclude summary judgment in favor of Uber and Lyft. As Judge Chhabria, who is hearing the Lyft…
Theater Employee’s Post-Termination Blogging Isn’t a Matter of “Public Concern”
This is a long-running and vitriolic dispute between James Ryan and Yvonne Johnson. Johnson was the director of the Spokane Civic Theater. She hired Ryan to be the music director. A few months after the hiring, Johnson fired Ryan allegedly…
GoDaddy Gets Important Section 230 Win in Second Circuit–Ricci v. Teamsters Union Local 456
GoDaddy won a Section 230 case in the Second Circuit. It’s a short and efficient ruling, but it’s a published opinion and the court says it’s the first Second Circuit opinion on Section 230 (I haven’t double-checked), which makes it…
The Righthaven Debacle, 5 Years Later
You probably recall Righthaven, the now-defunct copyright enforcement entity (some might call it a copyright troll) that purchased newspapers’ copyrights so it could sue small-time bloggers who republished articles; after suing, it would demand financial settlements the bloggers couldn’t afford….
It Takes a Default Judgment to Win a 17 USC 512(f) Case–Automattic v. Steiner
In enacting the DMCA’s notice-and-takedown system, Congress knew copyright owners and others might send takedown notices overzealously. To discourage abuses of the notice-and-takedown system, Congress enacted 17 USC 512(f) to create a new cause of action for sending bogus takedown…
Trial Court Doesn’t Unmask Parodist Twitterers
Plantiffs are trying to unmask Twitter users who make derogatory posts about the plaintiff corporate entities and their CEO. (Initial blog post about the case filing here.) They filed suit in the Western District of Washington, and sought and were…
Two Recent Spam Cases Look at Falsification of Origin and Subject Line Claims
Wagner v. Spire Vision: This is a spam lawsuit alleging receipt of emails in violation of California’s spam statute. There are 25 emails at issue. Header information claims: The California statute prohibits “falsified, misrepresented, or forged” header information. The court…
Adware Advertiser Sidesteps Liability
This case involves a browser plug-in from IMS, whose affiliates allegedly surreptitiously installed the plug-in on users’ computers. The plug-in allegedly caused pop-up ads to appear when users visited designated websites. Reed Elsevier allegedly advertised via these pop-up ads, triggering…
Which Was Dumber–Trash-Talking Tweeting, Or The Decision To Prosecute For It?
Robert Metzinger made the following four tweets during the 2013 World Series in St. Louis: Going to be tailgating with a #PressureCooker during games 3-4-5 in #STL during #WorldSeries. #STLStrong #GoCards #postseason from Springfield, MO. Putting my loft up for…
Blogiversary Bonus! A Video Interview About the Blog
Earlier this month, we celebrated the blog’s 10 year anniversary. In preparation for the anniversary, my RA Addam suggested making a video to help celebrate. After all, we don’t normally generate video content, so I thought it might be fun…